npm-config(1) -- Manage the npm configuration file

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

npm gets its configuration values from 5 sources, in this priority:

cli:
The command line flags. Putting --foo bar on the command line sets the
foo configuration parameter to "bar". A -- argument tells the cli
parser to stop reading flags. A --flag parameter that is at the end of
the command will be given the value of true.

env:
Any environment variables that start with npm_config_ will be interpreted
as a configuration parameter. For example, putting npm_config_foo=bar in
your environment will set the foo configuration parameter to bar. Any
environment configurations that are not given a value will be given the value
of true. Config values are case-insensitive, so NPM_CONFIG_FOO=bar will
work the same.

$HOME/.npmrc (or the userconfig param, if set above):
This file is an ini-file formatted list of key = value parameters.

$PREFIX/etc/npmrc (or the globalconfig param, if set above):
This file is an ini-file formatted list of key = value parameters

default configs:
This is a set of configuration parameters that are internal to npm, and are
defaults if nothing else is specified.

Sub-commands

Config supports the following sub-commands:

set

npm config set key value

Sets the config key to the value.

If value is omitted, then it sets it to "true".

get

npm config get key

Echo the config value to stdout.

list

npm config list

Show all the config settings.

delete

npm config delete key

Deletes the key from all configuration files.

edit

npm config edit

Opens the config file in an editor. Use the --global flag to edit the
global config.

Shorthands and Other CLI Niceties

The following shorthands are parsed on the command-line:

-v: --version

-h, -?, --help, -H: --usage

-s, --silent: --loglevel silent

-d: --loglevel info

-dd, --verbose: --loglevel verbose

-ddd: --loglevel silly

-g: --global

-l: --long

-p, --porcelain: --parseable

-reg: --registry

-v: --version

-f: --force

-l: --long

-desc: --description

-S: --save

ll and la commands: ls --long

If the specified configuration param resolves unambiguously to a known
configuration parameter, then it is expanded to that configuration
parameter. For example:

npm ls --par
# same as:
npm ls --parseable

If multiple single-character shorthands are strung together, and the
resulting combination is unambiguously not some other configuration
param, then it is expanded to its various component pieces. For
example:

Per-Package Config Settings

When running scripts (see npm help scripts)
the package.json "config" keys are overwritten in the environment if
there is a config param of <name>[@<version>]:<key>. For example, if
the package.json has this:

bindist

Experimental: on stable versions of node, binary distributions will be
created with this tag. If a user then installs that package, and their
bindist tag is found in the list of binary distributions, they will
get that prebuilt version.

Pre-build node packages have their preinstall, install, and postinstall
scripts stripped (since they are run prior to publishing), and do not
have their build directories automatically ignored.

It's yet to be seen if this is a good idea.

browser

Default: OS X: "open", others: "google-chrome"

Type: String

The browser that is called by the npm docs command to open websites.

cache

Default: Windows: ~/npm-cache, Posix: ~/.npm

Type: path

The location of npm's cache directory. See npm help cache

color

Default: true

Type: Boolean or "always"

If false, never shows colors. If "always" then always shows colors.
If true, then only prints color codes for tty file descriptors.

depth

Default: Infinity

Type: Number

The depth to go when recursing directories for npm ls and
npm cache ls.

description

Default: true

Type: Boolean

Show the description in npm search

dev

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Install dev-dependencies along with packages.

Note that dev-dependencies are also installed if the npat flag is
set.

editor

Default: EDITOR environment variable if set, or "vi"

Type: path

The command to run for npm edit or npm config edit.

force

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Makes various commands more forceful.

lifecycle script failure does not block progress.

publishing clobbers previously published versions.

skips cache when requesting from the registry.

prevents checks against clobbering non-npm files.

global

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into the
prefix folder instead of the current working directory. See
npm help folders for more on the differences in behavior.

packages are installed into the prefix/node_modules folder, instead of the
current working directory.

bin files are linked to prefix/bin

man pages are linked to prefix/share/man

globalconfig

Default: {prefix}/etc/npmrc

Type: path

The config file to read for global config options.

globalignorefile

Default: {prefix}/etc/npmignore

Type: path

The config file to read for global ignore patterns to apply to all users
and all projects.

If not found, but there is a "gitignore" file in the
same directory, then that will be used instead.

group

Default: GID of the current process

Type: String or Number

The group to use when running package scripts in global mode as the root
user.

gzipbin

Default: "gzip"

Type: path

The gzip binary

ignore

Default: ""

Type: string

A white-space separated list of glob patterns of files to always exclude
from packages when building tarballs.

init.version

Default: "0.0.0"

Type: semver

The value npm init should use by default for the package version.

init.author.name

Default: "0.0.0"

Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's name.

init.author.email

Default: ""

Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's email.

init.author.url

Default: ""

Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's homepage.

link

Default: false

Type: Boolean

If true, then local installs will link if there is a suitable globally
installed package.

Note that this means that local installs can cause things to be
installed into the global space at the same time. The link is only done
if one of the two conditions are met:

The package is not already installed globally, or

the globally installed version is identical to the version that is
being installed locally.

logfd

Default: stderr file descriptor

Type: Number or Stream

The location to write log output.

loglevel

Default: "warn"

Type: String

Values: "silent", "win", "error", "warn", "info", "verbose", "silly"

What level of logs to report. On failure, all logs are written to
npm-debug.log in the current working directory.

long

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Show extended information in npm ls

node-version

Default: process.version

Type: semver or false

The node version to use when checking package's "engines" hash.

npat

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Run tests on installation and report results to the
npaturl.

npaturl

Default: Not yet implemented

Type: url

The url to report npat test results.

onload-script

Default: false

Type: path

A node module to require() when npm loads. Useful for programmatic
usage.

outfd

Default: standard output file descriptor

Type: Number or Stream

Where to write "normal" output. This has no effect on log output.

parseable

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Output parseable results from commands that write to
standard output.

prefix

Default: node's process.installPrefix

Type: path

The location to install global items. If set on the command line, then
it forces non-global commands to run in the specified folder.